Refractory regenerator brick



Oct. 9, 1934. J, E, MacDoNALD 1,976,575

REFRACTORY REGENERAT OR BRI CK Fi led4 April 24 1933 INVENTOR PatentedOct. 9, 1934 'irao sfrATEs rArEir Fri-veemy Appiieatimiaaril' 24,

'A 1 olzim.

My inventicn is a refractory regenerator brick and is especiallysuitable for open hearth furnaces, heating furnaces, soaking pits andblast furnace stoves, although it is susceptible of use in various otherWays.

Regenerators commonly referred to as checkers constitute a major portionof most furnaces and their purpose is to absorb heat from the wastegases on Way to the stack, and to give off this absorbed heat, Whenfurnace is reversed and operatinCr in the opposite direction.

The primary consideration is the size of flue openings and heatingsurface of the brick used to construct the checkers, of Which there aremany conditions and as many styles of brick and methcds of laying. Ithas long been desirable to get a checker With proper flue openings Witha maxirnmn of heating surface from the brick used.

Most checkers have some offsets or shelves, 29 Which tencl to accumulatedirt, slag and other deposits from the outgoing Waste gases and productsof combustion. This accumulation of deposits prevents the brick fromabsorbing the desired heat, thus greatly lowering the efficiency of thecheckers.

One object of my invention is to provide a checker with a maximum ofexposed surface of the brick, With a minimum of material. This isaccomplished by the small loss of heating surface, in brick to brickjoints.

Another object of my invention is to provide a checker With flues soarranged, to permt air and gases to travel vertically, horizontally anddiagonally.

Another object of my invention is to provide a brick With all roundedsurfaces, When laid up in Working order. The all rounded surfacesreducing friction of the air and gases passing through the regeneratorto a minimum, and leaving no shelves or fiat surfaces to accumulatedirt, siag and other deposits.

Another object of my invention is to provide a generally Simplified andimproved checker, my bricks are merely stacked in successive tiers, oneagainst another, forming a checker structure having circular flueopenings.

Another object of my invention is to provide stronger checker-Work, asthe arms of my bricks, which extend across fiues forming the openings,support no weight from above, as the Weight is carried down through thecenter of the tiers, thus the arms are not affected by heat under load.

Another object of my invention is to avoid What may be termed crowdingor cramping of Athe gases, such as occurs When horizontal flue 1933,Serial No. 667,671 (ol.V asa-51) openings are few or entirely absent.The lateral flue openings in my design permits the expansion of the airand gases Within the checker-Work.

Another object of my invention is to provide a brick forming a checkerstructure so designed for increasing or decreasing the size of thechecker V flue openings, to give regulated control and disstribution ofthe furnace gases in the checker Chambers. For example; using my checkerbricks it is possible to make larger or smaller fiues at designatedsections -in the checker-Work. This is acquired by using one size orshape brick in building the structure, and altering only the radius onthe arms.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of my regenerator brick.V

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 represents a plan view of my brick With a slight variation in thesize of the arms, to show how this brick may be changed to give desiredflue openings, without getting away from my original design.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 represents a section of a side elevation of the regeneratorchamber of an open hearth furnace, with my bricks assembled in typicalstyle. Fig. 6 is a view, on an enlargedscale, taken on the line VI-VI ofFig. 5. The numeral 3 represents flue openings or passages through Whichthe Waste gases travel on Way to the stack. The brick absorbing the heatfrom these gases for the purpose of heating the incoming cold air, Whenfurnace is reversed and operating in the opposite direction.

The numeral 4 indicates checker support tile, comprising part of theunder-structure of the checker-Work, and provides the proper spacing forthe laying of the checker bricks.

The numeral 5 represents checker rider-walls, and as the name implies,provides the main under-structure for the checker-Work and room for theaccumulation of dirt, slag and other deposits, carried down through thecheckers.

The numeral 6 represents the bridgewall, which separates the slagpockets from the checkerwork, for the purpose of preventing slag Vfromgetting into the regenerator chamber.

The numeral 7 represents the regenerator chamber roof.

The numeral 8 indicates the port down-takes, through Which the outgoinggases travel after leaving the furnace body and ports, on its way to theregenerator chambers and finally out to the stack.

lThe numeral 9 indicates the slag pocket, so

Vao

ermost ends of the adjacent projections. oWhen V the bricks areassembled as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, circular passageways are formedthereby Vfor the flow of gases.

The projections at the Sides of the bricks are provided with' knobs 1and recesses 2 Which can o be interlocked with one another, as shown inFig. 6, thus facilitating assembly of the brcks, and also rendering themless liable to displacement.

I claim as my inventionz- A checker structure for furnaces, comprisingbricks each having six projecting sides Which are of circular form incross section and are of such gradually-increasing diameter from theiroutermost surfaces' to their base portions that they Vare Vconcave alonglines extending from said outermost surfaces to the said base portions,the

lbases of adjacent projections merging with one another toforrn arcswhich extend from the extremity of v'one projection to the extremitiesof adjacent projections, and the said projecting sides of each brickabutting against the similarly formed sid'es'of adjacent bricks.

JAMES E. MACDONALD.

